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ANKARA, Dec 8 Turkey's prime minister said on Thursday the government would make no unnecessary spending next year but would offer easier credit for the private sector as he announced measures to boost a stalling economy and shore up the lira. The steps outlined by Binali Yildirim include cheaper funding for companies, easier loan restructuring for banks, and a tighter lid on public spending.

Turkish prosecutors ordered the arrest of 87 people linked to Istanbul University in an investigation targeting followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of being behind July's attempted coup, media reported on Friday. Broadcaster CNN Turk said police carried out simultaneous raids across 12 provinces, targeting suspects including someone it said was the head of a minor political party and many professors from the university.

Dec 8 Turkish state institutions will avoid contracts in foreign currencies unless "absolutely necessary", Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Thursday, as the government looks to stem a slide in the lira currency. At a news conference in Ankara to announce a package of measures designed to help both the lira and the stalling economy, Yildirim said existing state contracts would be converted to lira where possible.

This Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016 photo, released by the International Committee for the Red Cross, shows members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent laying a patient on stretcher after taking him out of a medical facility in the Old City of Aleppo, Syria. The ICRC said it evacuated 148 disabled or civilians in need of urgent care from the facility, now under Syrian government control.

A businessman who allegedly helped the Iranians duck U.S. sanctions used to operate in one of the Istanbul towers bearing the name of the next American president. Two buildings in Turkey may have more potential to upend American national security than any of president-elect Donald Trump 's other foreign business dealings.

The European Union says Turkey has made virtually no progress on meeting conditions to earn visa-free travel for its citizens, a key part of their deal to prevent refugees reaching Europe. The European Commission said Thursday that "seven benchmarks remain to be met by Turkey," the same number as in the last progress report published in September.

A Turkish prosecutor assigned to terror cases escaped unharmed late on Dec. 7 after unknown assailants fired on his car in Istanbul's Sultangazi district. Evliya A alA AYkan, who is employed at the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office's Terror and Organized Crime Bureau, left a courthouse at around 8:30 p.m. and was attacked alongside bodyguards at around 9:15 p.m. on Dec. 7. Four bullets hit the car and blew out the tires.

Aleppo shakes with explosions and gunfire day and night in both the government- and rebel-held sides of the divided Syrian city. But for supporters of President Bashar Assad, there is a growing sense of imminent victory.